Acquisitions (Narrative) (Details) (USD $)	0 Months Ended		12 Months Ended					0 Months Ended	9 Months Ended	12 Months Ended			12 Months Ended
	Jun. 23, 2011	Jun. 21, 2011	Dec. 31, 2012 Reporting_Unit		Dec. 31, 2011 Reporting_Unit	Dec. 31, 2010 Reporting_Unit	Jan. 30, 2010	Jun. 30, 2011 Beckman Coulter	Sep. 30, 2011 Beckman Coulter	Dec. 31, 2011 Beckman Coulter	Dec. 31, 2010 AB Sciex & Molecular Devices	Jan. 30, 2010 AB Sciex & Molecular Devices	Dec. 31, 2012 Others Business	Dec. 31, 2011 Others Business	Dec. 31, 2010 Others Business
Business Acquisition, Contingent Consideration [Line Items]
Number of businesses acquired													14	13	17
Cash paid on business acquisition, available cash								$ 2,300,000,000					$ 1,800,000,000
Number of segments			5		5	5
Aggregate annual sales of additional businesses										3,700,000,000	650,000,000		666,000,000	325,000,000	440,000,000
Goodwill			15,462,000,000		14,474,300,000	10,393,700,000							1,000,000,000
Goodwill related to acquisitions			1,015,700,000		4,164,700,000	1,157,800,000				3,745,800,000	496,900,000			418,900,000	660,900,000
Business acquisition purchase price			1,796,800,000		6,210,800,000	2,129,700,000		5,500,000,000		5,541,600,000	1,038,300,000	1,000,000,000		669,200,000	1,091,400,000
Net cash acquired								450,000,000
Fair value of debt at acquisition date			5,917,300,000	[1]	5,790,100,000			1,600,000,000
Net proceeds from underwritten public offering of the Company's common stock		966,000,000	212,000,000		1,112,500,000	178,400,000
Net proceeds from debt	1,800,000,000
Net cash consideration			1,796,800,000		6,210,800,000	2,129,700,000								669,000,000	1,100,000,000
Ownership interest acquired in Applied Biosystems/MDS Sciex joint venture ("AB Sciex")							50.00%
Ownership interest acquired in Molecular Devices Corporation							100.00%
Ownership interest acquired in Applied Biosystems/MDS Sciex joint venture ("AB SCIEX") from Life Technologies Corporation							50.00%
Transaction related costs					57,000,000	36,000,000
Impact of pre-tax charges reflected in earnings					117,000,000	54,000,000
Fair value adjustments to inventory and deferred revenue									117,000,000
Acquisition-related transaction costs										$ 60,000,000

[1] Effective January 1, 2012, the Company is required to disclose, on a prospective basis, the level within the fair value hierarchy at which the fair values of the financial instruments are categorized. As of December 31, 2012, available-for-sale securities and short and long-term borrowings were categorized as level 1, while the currency swap agreement was categorized as level 2.